Avoid Alcohol During Pregnancy: It Even Affects Your Grandchildren

Alcohol intake may impact brain development and lead to adverse outcomes in the offspring as well as the future grand- and even great-grandchildren.

Highlights

Prenatal ethanol exposure (PrEE) from maternal consumption of alcohol, was thought to solely impact the directly exposed offspring.
But ethanol exposure generates //neurobiological and behavioral effects in subsequent generations also.
Mice which were not directly exposed to alcohol had the same effects of those which were directly exposed.

One of the most important change that a soon-to-be mother has to adopt is, to quit alcohol if she is used to it. Be it wine or beer or any other form, there have been numerous statements about the dangers of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

It can lead to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) in newborns. There is also another recent finding which brings out a stronger reason to quit the habit. Drinking alcohol during pregnancy will not only affect her unborn child, but may also impact brain development and lead to adverse outcomes in her future grand- and even great-grandchildren.

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Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a group of physical and mental defects that occur in the fetus due to alcohol consumption by the mother during pregnancy.

‘Prenatal ethanol exposure (from maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy) causes abnormalities in the brain and behavior that may be passed on for many generations.’

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

The range of disorders that occur in the fetus due to maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy are referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. They can range in severity and include:

Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder – Associated with intellectual and learning difficulties and behavioral problems.
Alcohol Related Birth Defects – Involve the physical defects caused in the fetus as a result of maternal alcohol drinking during pregnancy.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – Is the most severe form. It comprises both neurological as well as physical defects related to maternal alcohol consumption. The presence of only some signs and symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome is classified as partial fetal alcohol syndrome.

The new study by Kelly Huffman, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, titled "Prenatal Ethanol Exposure and Neocortical Development: A Transgenerational Model of FASD," was published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

Prenatal Ethanol Exposure (PrEE)

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Previous work from the Huffman Laboratory at UCR has shown that PrEE impacts the anatomy of the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for complex behavior and cognition in humans, and that PrEE can lead to abnormal motor behavior and increased anxiety in the exposed offspring.

Huffman and a group of UCR students have extended this research by providing strong evidence that in utero ethanol exposure generates neurobiological and behavioral effects in subsequent generations of mice that had no ethanol exposure.

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"Traditionally, prenatal ethanol exposure (PrEE) from maternal consumption of alcohol, was thought to solely impact directly exposed offspring, the embryo or fetus in the womb. However, we now have evidence that the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure could persist transgenerationally and negatively impact the next-generations of offspring who were never exposed to alcohol," Huffman said.

To determine whether the abnormalities in brain and behavior from prenatal ethanol exposure would pass transgenerationally, Huffman generated a mouse model of FASD and tested many aspects of brain and behavioral development across three generations.

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As expected, the first generation, the directly exposed offspring, showed atypical gene expression, abnormal development of the neural network within the neocortex and behavioral deficits.

However, the main discovery of the research lies in the subsequent, non-exposed generations of mice. These animals had neurodevelopmental and behavioral problems similar to the those of the first, directly exposed generation.

Transgenerational Effect of Prenatal Ethanol Exposure

"We found that body weight and brain size were significantly reduced in all generations of PrEE animals when compared to controls; all generations of PrEE mice showed increased anxiety-like, depressive-like behaviors and sensory-motor deficits. By demonstrating the strong transgenerational effects of prenatal ethanol exposure in a mouse model of FASD, we suggest that FASD may be a heritable condition in humans," Huffman said.

The multi-level analyses in this study suggest that alcohol consumption while pregnant leads to a cascade of nervous system changes that ultimately impact behavior, via mechanisms that can produce transgenerational effects.

By gaining an understanding of the neurodevelopmental and behavioral effects of prenatal ethanol exposure that persist across generations, scientists and researchers can begin to create novel therapies and methods of prevention.

Reference

Kelly J. Huffman et al., Prenatal Ethanol Exposure and Neocortical Development: A Transgenerational Model of FASD, Cerebral Cortex (2017) https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx168.

Source-Medindia